Mischa Barton Breaks Silence About Her Breakdown

Mischa Barton recently spoke for the first time about the issues she suffered after becoming an overnight star on "The O.C.", and said she felt that no matter what she did, the media would scrutinize her.

Barton was just 17 when the Fox show became a hit, and her star immediately began to rise. Soon, she found herself a Hollywood "It" girl; invited to the best parties and clubs, hanging out with other celebrities, and enjoying long nights that included some hard partying. It's a tale told many times in Hollywood; unfortunately, it can be a town that eats young stars and spits them out. Barton said she was just living it up, without thought to the consequences.

Even after a DUI arrest in 2007, she still couldn't change her ways. By 2009, her parents were ready to stage an intervention. That same year, the young actress suffered ill effects after taking a sedative and eventually landed in a psych ward after threatening to kill herself.

“It was terrifying,” Barton said. “Straight out of ‘Girl, Interrupted.’ Story of my life...I was never suicidal. I was just overworked and depressed. But one slip of the tongue in a heightened moment and you find yourself in that situation.”

Even after she managed to pull her life together and get healthy, she says, the media wasn't happy with her looks.

"It was a full-on breakdown," she said. "I was under enormous pressure...It was always, 'She's too skinny, she must be sick,' Then it was, 'She's too big.' I was never the right weight."

Now, Barton says she's a stronger person and has learned to focus on the positives in her life, which include getting back into acting and opening her own boutique in London.